Just playing games

James has become an almost obsessive game player. He is always asking to play board games now. Unfortunatley, he no longer has any interest in the games that Maggie might be able to play with him, like CandyLand or Guess Who. So, at bedtime, he has a routine of asking about "The Plans," which means a recounting of the family calendar for the upcoming week. Frequently, he follows this with a plaintive request: "When can we play a game?"

All too often, my answer must be, "I'm not sure when, sweetheart. It is difficult to play any of the longer games you like. In the evening, there isn't time to finish a game before bedtime. Earlier in the day, John is around and won't self-entertain for the duration of a 2-3 hour game."

"Well, then, how will I ever be able to play games?" comes the self-piteous moan.

"Well, do you have any friends who like to play games?" No, he doesn't think so. Yeah, unfortunately, he is probably right.

"What about your cousin, Lydia?" This led to a whole new line of questioning. James discovered that Lydia was in fact willing to play Monopoly, and Settlers, and thus might even be a good prospect for other new passions like Carcassonne. So now, every night, I simply hear, "When can Lydia come to visit again? I mean, not just for a short time, but at least for a whole day?" (In other words, for enough time that they can shut the door to his bedroom, locking out all the younger kids while they play games for hours on end.) Since Lydia lives 3 hours away, and her father is a pastor so she can't typically stay over a Saturday night, the answer is usually, "I don't know when."

So, James's favorite treat in the whole world is on a Friday night when Dad will pull out Carcassonne or Settlers, just as John is getting ready for bed. It makes James a bear for days to stay up so late, but he so loves it, it is almost worth it.

It really struck me this weekend, however, that James doesn't just like games. He has a compulsive need to play them. The kids came home from a birthday party with bags of pinata candy (oh joy). Maggie opened her package of skittles and James said with excitement, "Look, you have almost all fire!"

"What?" I inquired.

"Oh, it's a game," James said nonchalantly.

I sat a moment to watch. James at some prior candy holiday (and of course those have become too numerous to count) had invented a game that resembled a hybrid of the card game War and the classic Rock/Paper/Scissors. He assigned candy colors to the elements (fire, earth, air, water) and each one had a priority of what it beat and what defeated it. The kids sat at the table for over half an hour duking it out with their candy. Apparently, James has been filling in the long dry gaming spells with inventing games that he can stand to play and that Maggie is able to play.